Tesla Only Logged 550 Self-Driving Miles With Prototypes In 2016 (Update)

In terms of actual self-driving miles logged under its belt, it seems as though Tesla is quite a bit behind some of its competitors if a recent report is taken at face value.

According to its Disengagement of Autonomous Mode report filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Tesla logged just 550 self-driving miles in 2016. Almost all of those miles were accumulated while filming the self-driving Model X clip seen below.

During those 550 miles, 168 disengagement events occurred (self-driving mode disengaged presumably by driver/passenger for one of hundreds of possible reasons).

The only self-driving miles logged by Tesla were all in the Model X. No Model S self-driving miles were logged in 2016.

Update: In a statement to Electrek perhaps explaining the low numbers, a “source” said that autonomous driving disclosure was mostly related to production of promotionL videos (again, such as below), and noted that Tesla’s Autopilot development team routinely tests vehicles off of California’s public roads, while generating most of its data accumulation through actual cars on the road.

I see Tesla lead, because deep learning needs lots and lots of data. Since october last year, Tesla cranks out almost 10.000 cars per month which will collect massive amounts of data from the autonomouse hardware.

You have to read the update to understand the difference between how Tesla is learning about autonomy vs. the traditional automakers. Tesla uses data from their tens of thousands of cars over the air as they log millions of miles. The traditional automakers use data logged from onboard computers in their small handful of autonomous test cars.

Update: In a statement to Electrek perhaps explaining the low numbers, a “source” said that autonomous driving disclosure was mostly related to production of promotionL videos (again, such as below), and noted that Tesla’s Autopilot development team routinely tests vehicles off of California’s public roads, while generating most of its data accumulation through actual cars on the road.

He has no regard for the truth or facts that this report only covers the making of promotional video or that virtually ALL Tesla cars with AP are shadowing their drivers and collecting enormous amounts of valuable data for the deep learning.

He and his other fellow shorters like Spiegel, zzzz, etc are simply delusional if they think they can influence the market in any way by posting their FUD here or anywhere else as their pathetic desperation grows.

What bothers me so much about posts from our resident serial Tesla bashers isn’t that they might affect the stock price — I mean, seriously, do they think their collective FUD efforts have ever affected it by as much as a single penny? — it’s the disruption of useful and meaningful conversation here that I find so objectionable.

Because it obviously seems that Tesla is not ready to unleash test vehicles in busy urban environments like San Francisco (pretty much the ultimate test for autonomous vehicles…outside of maybe Washington DC). What better place to do testing than in…..actual real life cities? I bet those “private roads” are tough to navigate!

Meanwhile, GM racked up thousands of miles in Bolts outfitted with autonomous driving equipment.

You do realize GM man, that Tesla is racking up enormous amounts of real world data for autonomous driving?!
If you’re going to sit here and suggest GM is ahead on this front, then you gotta show me something backing up your claims. Otherwise you’re just doing your usual trash talking!

I’m talking about where the passenger is let off in the parking lot next to a building, as shown starting at about 4:10 in the following video, and I don’t see anything I’d describe as unusual about it:

I’m smelling desperation here! I hope you don’t burst a blood vessel when Model 3 starts pulling in the accolades! It’s probably a feature to get you close to where you need to be, as opposed to YOU walking across traffic. It’s better the car than you!

Just like Trump, ignore the main topic being discussed and spin into something frivolous.

Frankly, I’m surprised Tesla decided to release the video of the car driving up the WRONG side of the road at the end of the video. Could have at least done a quick reshoot and had it drive up the correct side.

Model 3 will probably rack up the awards….maybe the 2019 or 2020 awards, not 2018 though.

It was already pretty clear Tesla is not nearly as far along as they say on self-driving. Their system is still far behind what they had with HW1 (MobilEye).

But they are putting a lot of effort into this. They are making progress. And they will end up with a very capable system at some point. But I just think it’s really hard to take their schedules seriously. And when you see a demo, just take it with a grain of salt. That doesn’t just go for Tesla. When you see GM’s Cruise videos you should probably assume that for each video you see that goes great there are 3 that they wouldn’t find so advantageous to release.

Anyone who says Tesla is “lagging behind” in development of autonomy, or indeed that Tesla isn’t ahead of everyone else, is either not aware of the facts, or else is trying hard to believe their own anti-Tesla FUD!

Until recently, I thought Google was ahead; after all, they have deployed cars which don’t even have steering wheels, which seems to put them ahead of Tesla. But then I found out that Google limits their self-driving cars to a top speed of 35 MPH!

I followed one on the highway at over the speed limit several YEARS ago. They have two types of cars. One with a steering wheel so the human can take over in an emergency. The other just has a stop button, no wheel. The latter are by law only allowed on streets with limits of 35mph or lower. The former go everywhere and at all normal speeds.

Both drive themselves using the same systems. It’s just one has no fall back and that’s why that one isn’t legally allowed on roads with limits above 35mph.

Here is a link to a story of a Google self-driving employee from November 2013.

This employee was having a car self-drive him on the highway at highway speeds for 43 miles each way every day for years. The story starts out with the person being self-driving at over 70mph on I-880.

Google had this in 2013. Tesla first rolled out their autopilot in October 2015. Yes it would seem they are far ahead of Tesla.